


Databent

by tonedeaf



Series: Me & My Husband [1]
Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: AU - Arlene in place of Arnold, F/M, Feelings are primarily unspoken but they're there, Hologram problems, Lister's trying his best and Rimmer's trying not to be afraid of that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11866722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonedeaf/pseuds/tonedeaf
Summary: When Rimmer's light bee is damaged on an excursion gone wrong, Lister is stuck with either finding a near-impossible solution, or facing a life without his friend.





	1. Static

     The whole trip was looking more and more to be a total bust, Lister thinks glumly as he kicks a piece of debris across the floor.

     An entire ship, formerly the base of operations and home to a group of deep space scientists, and not one useful thing to be found, save for a few loose nuts and bolts—which Cat had promptly snagged to add to his collection of shiny things—and a couple of chipped coffee mugs and empty, broken vials. There were only a couple of short hallways and rooms left to check before they’d have combed the entire ship, but he was fairly sure they wouldn’t yield anything either.

     Still, he supposed it didn’t hurt to check—they’d have to check anyway, having been separated from Rimmer at some point earlier.

     “Rimmer! Rimmer, you there?” He calls out, before sighing tiredly, dropping his head and kicking another scrap of trash to the side. “C’mon, girl, I wanna get out of here…”

     “I don’t seem to be able to hear her, sirs. Perhaps she’s already gone back to Starbug?”

     “Or we could just leave without her!” Cat perks up, hopefully.

     “If she’s not over here, we’ll go back to check the ‘Bug, but we’re not leaving without her.”

     “Aw man, _c’mon_ , we could’ve been home by now!”

     A clang echoes from somewhere off in the direction they’ve been heading, and they stop in their tracks, waiting for anything else. When there's only silence, Lister calls out cautiously.

     “Rimmer? That you?”

     There’s no answer, and the three share a look of suspicion, before readying their bazookoids and continuing their way over with slowed, careful paces.

     It could be nothing—maybe it _was_ just Rimmer checking something out and she didn't hear them—but past experience told Lister that something was very wrong here, and he was becoming more concerned by the second. Rimmer had taken a bazookoid with her, but then again, Kryten had just the other day found her hiding in a linen closet after one of the machines on that floor made a sound similar to a shot being fired.

     More sounds become apparent as they inch closer to a particular room, and posting themselves just beside the doorway, Lister holds up his hand in a signal of ‘on three’, mouthing along with each number. The source of the noise doesn’t appear to have heard them, and Lister notes that it doesn't sound familiar based on Rimmer's usual habits. Before he can explore exactly how he's so certain of this, he reaches the final number.

     “ **Three!** ”

     They launch themselves through the doorway, weapons drawn, and are met with a droid, seeming to be in the middle picking something apart on the ground.

     It’s startled from whatever it’s inspecting, and quickly gets up to lunge at them, letting out a rough bellow and clearly intending harm. The three flinch back and begin to shoot at it in tandem, backing up as it nears but not stopping until it’s finally down, collapsing in a heap. It twitches twice, but doesn’t appear to be getting up anytime soon, smoke gently rising from where it was hit. Kryten kneels down to prod carefully at it, Cat hiding behind him and asking a flurry of questions, while Lister turns his attention to whatever it had been poking at.

     He feels his heart drop into his stomach when he spots a familiar shell, opened up and spilling some of its contents out.

     “No, no, no!” He rushes over, dropping to the ground and nearly tossing his bazookoid aside.

     “What is it, sir?” Kryten looks up immediately, stopping his investigation.

     “We found Rimmer,” he reports lowly, cupping his hands gently around the pieces of her light bee.

     “Oh dear, that’s not good.” Kryten shuffles over to see for himself, shaking his head at the sight. “It would appear that Miss Rimmer was caught off-guard by that rogue droid.”

     “Well hey, you know what that means!” Cat grins toothily, jumping up to turn back to the door. “We can go home now! Everything worked out fine!”

     “Fine? Rimmer’s totally pulled apart!”

     “All’s well that ends well!”

     Lister groans and carefully gathers the bee and loose pieces in his hands.

     “…We can put her back together, can’t we?”

     “I don’t see why not, sir! There doesn’t seem to be any pieces missing; just a matter of putting them back in the right order!”

     Lister sighs, carefully shifting her around to get a better grasp and following Cat out into the hall.

     “Right, let’s go then—she’ll be mad if we don’t hurry up.”

* * *

  
     It takes about an hour of careful reconstruction with the aid of the only light bee manual they own, but Lister and Kryten manage to put her together again, booting her back up and being rewarded with the appearance of start-up lights.

     As expected, she comes back online within seconds, and Lister quickly tosses her a few feet to give her room to reform. Her body back, she opens her eyes and gasps for air before she suddenly realizes where she is.

     “Well it’s about time!” She glances around quickly in badly-disguised fright. “Where is it, then? Is it gone now?”

     “We took care of that droid, don’t worry,” Lister assures.

     “What exactly happened, Miss Rimmer? Do you remember anything?”

     “Of course I do!” She snaps, crossing her arms and beginning to pace. Lister notices that her form is filled with some light static, but brushes it off as her systems catching up to their repairs.

     “I stopped to look through a post pod we passed. When I finished, the rest of you were long gone. I called out, but nobody answered.”

     He cringes slightly in guilt—they hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t with them until they were a few hallways over, and even then they’d brushed it off and assumed she was fine.

     “I was about to go look for you when I heard a noise coming from a nearby room. I went to check it out, and—“

     She stops short, glaring down at the ground, more static building at her fingertips alongside her shame.

     “Well, that was that.”

     “I’m sorry mate, we should’ve noticed you were gone sooner,” Lister apologizes sincerely. “But how’d it get to your light bee? You’re always on hard-light these days.”

     He sees her ears turn red and she refuses to look up at either of them.

     “…It startled me and tried to whack me over the head. I went soft-light to avoid it, but it got to my bee before I could switch back and deactivated me. Go ahead and laugh it up, then.”

     “I’m not gonna laugh, it's not funny.”

     “ _Ha!_ Maybe not to _you!_ ”

     Cat had woken up from his impromptu nap on one of the room’s tables just in time to hear her embarrassing tale. Lister quickly smacks him on the arm and shoos him out before turning back to Rimmer.

     “We should’ve been there with you; it won’t happen again.”

     She pulls a face and doesn’t seem convinced, but doesn’t say anything in response.

     Suddenly, her image flickers for a moment, startling everybody. She opens her mouth to say something when it happens again, accompanied by stronger patches of static, and her colours completely inverting for a split second.

     “What’s happening to me?” Her voice too is affected, tone shifting up to a mouse-like quality at the end.

     “Oh my, perhaps there was more damage than we thought,” Kryten waves his hands, trying to get her to stay still.

     “What do you mean ‘more damage’? What happened to my bee?!” There’s a much more visible sheen of static to her entire image now, buzzing softly beneath her colours.

     “Please, do try to remain calm, ma’am. I-It’s just that when we found you, your light bee had been…opened, and taken apart-“

     “ _ **Taken apart?!**_ ”

     Her panic seems to affect whatever glitches she’s experiencing, her image breaking violently for a few moments before returning to normal.

     “I’m sure it’s simply a loose part or something equally trivial, ma’am,” he tries to assure. “Allow me to take another look and I’ll correct it.”

     It isn’t so easy to get her to agree, but she reluctantly gives in after a long few minutes of assurances and promises that they’ll be quick, and they make a particularly strong oath at her insistence that they won’t mess anything up further. Lister positions himself at Kryten’s shoulder to closely observe the procedure and follow it at every step.

     “…Oh dear.”

     “What? What’s wrong?” He pushes himself further forward, nearly on top of Kryten’s back now.

     “A vital piece of Miss Rimmer’s hardware has been damaged. I didn’t notice it earlier because of how small it was, but I see it now.”

     “…We can fix it, though, right? You just said it was small.”

     Kryten grimly shakes his head.

     “I’m afraid not, sir. However small, this is a piece extremely sensitive to damage, and trying to repair it with the only light bee tools we have could potentially make it even worse. The only solution at this point would be to install an entirely new piece to replace it.”

     "And how vital is this piece, exactly?"

     "Without it, her light bee can't properly sustain her program, and it'll eventually stop running it entirely."

     "Well alright," Lister leans back, turning to exit the room. "We'll replace it then, I'll go down to the Holo Suite now and pick up a new one."

     "I'm afraid that that's not possible, sir."

     Lister stops and spins back around.

     "And why's that?"

     "We don't currently have any extras of this piece."

     Lister groans in exasperation, falling back to lean against the doorway and lower himself to the ground to sit.

     "...Where in the universe do you suppose we're gonna find a new one of these things?"

     "Well I wouldn't lose all hope just yet, sir," Kryten gently sets the bee down and turns around in his seat to face him. "There's always the possibility that we do have an extra and it's just being kept somewhere else. Perhaps the Cat has one—he's always taking 'shiny things' from around the ship, after all."

     "Yeah, that's true...But what if he _doesn't_ have one? What if we can't find one _anywhere?_ What do we tell Rimmer? That's she's getting shut off permanently because her bee can't sustain her anymore? She'll be _horrified_ , man."

     "Well, she's turned off right now so technically we don't _have_ to tell her; we could just keep her off until if or when we find a solution."

     "No, that wouldn't be right," he shakes his head. "It's her whole afterlife, she has a right to know what's going on."

     While Kryten carefully places her back together for the second time, Lister considers how he's going to break the news. She'll react badly to it no matter how gentle he is with it, he knows, but the least he can do is try to ease her into it. He couldn't help but feel like this entire situation was his fault—if he'd been paying attention, none of this would've happened. Now he's gotta tell his roommate, his oldest friend really, that she's going to die a second time.

     What would the rest of his life be like, with her permanently gone? It was different when she'd gone off to be Ace, she was still technically alive, out there having adventures. This time, she'd be well and truly _gone_. Forever. He feels a pit open in his stomach and doesn't want to consider it anymore. He supposed he always knew on some level that he felt rather strongly about her, but he never thought he'd have to face it in the midst of something quite as bad as this.

     He sways his head over just in time to see Kryten toss her into the air, and he quickly scrambles up to stand properly. She reforms more calmly this time, opening her eyes to stare critically at each of them, static still bubbling under the surface of her image. It makes Lister feel ill.

     "Well? Did you fix it?"

     He and Kryten look over at each other nervously before turning back to her, and her face immediately scrunches up in suspicion.

     "What is it? What's wrong? What did you do?"

     "We didn't do anything! We—"

     "So you _didn't_ fix me?"

     "Well, no, but—"

     "Well why the bloody smeg not?"

     "We can't!"

     Lister didn't mean to shout this, but he'd panicked. He regrets it instantly when he sees how stricken she looks by this.

     "...What?"

     "We...can't," he sighs, rubbing a hand over his face and closing his eyes as if it made it easier to say.

     "A piece got damaged beyond repair, and we don't have a replacement for it right now. Your bee can't sustain your program for much longer."

     He opens his eyes with a flinch, and meets her now distraught gaze. He doesn't know what else to say.

     "...So that's it, then..." she murmurs. "I'm going to die. Again." A heavy moment of silence weighs over their heads as this fact sinks in.

     "No you won't."

     Both Rimmer and Kryten are taken aback, looking back over to Lister, who now straightens himself up and looks her in the eyes.

     "You're not gonna die. I'll find the part we need and fix you, I just need some time."

     "Sir, the next abandoned station we find could easily be years away—"

     "I'll find a way."

     He steps over to stand directly in front of her, still steadily holding her gaze.

     "Lister, I don't understand. What exactly are you going to do? You just said it yourself that we don't have the part. Kryten just said that—"

     "I'm promising you right here, right now, that I'm not gonna give up until I can fix you."

     "...But—"

     "But nothing," he shakes his head, offering up a weak smile. "You're my friend, and friends don't let friends get turned off forever."

     She says nothing to this at first, merely staring at him. He stares back, waiting for her to move first. He thinks he can feel something between them but isn't quite certain of what it is. Kryten looks nervously back and forth between them. When she remains speechless, he decides to take the lead again.

     "What d'ya say, Rimmer? Trust me?"

     She seems to snap out of a daze, but still doesn't answer for a moment. She's the first to break their staring contest, nervously glancing down and the floor and to the side, anywhere but directly at him.

     "...I don't want to go."

     He leans back a bit to give her some space.

     "I know. I promise I'll work as fast as I can. You'll be back in no time."

     She looks back up at him.

     "...You promise? You _really_ promise?"

     He holds up a hand in a made-up salute.

     "Dwarfer's honor."

     She snorts and shakes her head, and his smile is stronger this time. Rimmer's mouth quirks in amusement, before her image shifts again, the colour of her uniform changing to what Lister recognizes as her soft-light form. His smile drops, and he looks for confirmation of what he thinks she means by this.

     "...Hurry up, then."

     He doesn't know if she can actually feel it when he slowly reaches a hand through her form, but tries to be as gentle as he can regardless out of respect, carefully wrapping his hand around her light bee. They hold each other's gaze once more, and he is the last thing she sees when he presses the button to switch her off.

     Even with her image gone, he continues to stare at the space where her face just was for a few moments, until Kryten makes a show of clearing his throat, and he remembers that he's not alone. The light bee is tiny, but feels heavy in his hand, as if weighed down with Rimmer's hopes and expectations of him.

     "What do you plan we do now, sir?"

     Lister places her in his front pocket for safe keeping and turns around.

     "First thing's first, we check the ship."


	2. Reinterpretation

     Even after an extensive search of the entire ship from top to bottom, which had taken over two weeks with only himself and Kryten to split the work, they hadn't found a thing to help them. Unsurprisingly, the Cat couldn't provide anything useful for them either—and Lister had taken the extra step of inspecting both his room and everywhere he was known to keep things hidden with a fine-tooth comb while Kryten had mercifully kept him distracted. (Cat was still mad at him, and had been avoiding the two of them entirely for the past few days.)

     It'd been a very quiet two and-a-half weeks. He tries not to think about it too much.

     He really wasn't quite sure where to take things from here now. He's currently sitting on the edge of his bunk, legs dangling down into the too-empty space of the bottom bunk. Rimmer stares back impassively from the table across the room, or at least that's what he imagines she might be doing if she were still awake.

     He tries not to think about how angry she might be if she were still aware of things and had known how much time she's been turned off. He knows how much she despises being turned off.

     He also tries not to think about how she's not actually sleeping right now, but effectively dead 'for real'.

     The thought of this frightens and disturbs him far more deeply than he anticipated, not that he'd ever allowed himself to give the idea much thought in the first place. It'd always just been a given for him that he and Rimmer would be together in deep space forever, until he himself died. Her stint as Ace was really the only other time he could think of in which he had to face the possibility of never seeing her again, but it hadn't been all that long before she was resurrected with the rest of the crew. Even after that version of her had died, the original had been quick to come back to them to fill the void, simply arriving one day and announcing that she was officially retired from the space-hero business. That was the only real period that she'd been gone on a 'permanent' basis. Well, that, and the time they had run into to the _SS Enlightenment_ and its crew of holograms _,_  but that was barely two days—

     A thought suddenly occurs to him, and he turns it over in his head a few times before jumping down and leaving to go get Kryten's opinion.

     Rimmer stays waiting in her spot, still completely silent.

 

* * *

 

     "That took a lot less time than I thought it would."

     "Well sir, we didn't actually stray that far from here—conveniently, we were parked in place for much of the past two weeks."

     "Still," Lister muses, turning over more broken glass with his foot and carefully side-stepping the bigger piles.

     He and Kryten were back on board the empty base, where all their trouble had first begun. It was a bit difficult to recall exactly, but he thinks they're moving in the right direction, bazookoids once more at the ready.

     They come across an abandoned post pod pushed into a corner, and he knows they're in the right spot. He nods over at it, and Kryten nods back.

     "This way."

     Finding the room isn't difficult after that, but they're dismayed to find that the droid is no longer where they had left it.

     "It must have come back online and is back to roaming the facility," Kryten guesses.

     "You don't think there's another one of those around that might've moved it, do you?"

     "Oh I highly doubt it, sir. We would've almost certainly run into it by now."

     They hear a shuffle somewhere not too far off and fall silent. The shuffling thankfully seems not to have noticed them and moves on into the opposite direction from them. Once things settle back into quiet, they wordlessly agree to not make too much noise from that point on, and begin searching the room.

     Lister had thought that maybe the ship itself had had something to do with hologram tech, from the way the droid had been carefully picking the light bee apart during their last run-in, and he was relieved to find that he had been right—all along the shelves and in most of the drawers were bits and pieces from different types of light bees, along with some tools commonly used to repair and maintain them. He carefully shoves most of them into his pockets while he simultaneously curses himself for not paying more attention when they were first here. (He comes to his own defense with the fact that he had been rather distressed by Rimmer being literally scattered in pieces on the floor. But there again, he argues, why such a one-track mind in those moments?)

     "Any luck?" He whispers over to Kryten, who is gathering other pieces into a small bag they had brought along.

     "Not quite, sir," he whispers back. "I haven't found a replacement, however I _have_ found many pieces that may prove useful in the future."

     "Keep looking, it's bound to be here somewhere."

     "Hey Monkey! Robot! Where are you guys?"

     They jolt violently and nearly trip over themselves when they hear Cat's voice ringing loudly through the ship, off in the near distance. Kryten rushes to find and silence him while Lister frantically rushes around the room to finish his search, looking desperately for the piece they need.

     Finally, in the very last drawer he pulls open, there it is—the exact part they need, in surprisingly pristine condition. He pumps a fist in victory and carefully slides in into his front pocket, dashing out of the room to meet up with the others.

     He finds them locked in a struggle, Kryten trying with all his might to keep a hand over the Cat's mouth, who's fighting back against him twice as hard.

     "I found it, let's go!" He abandons quiet and yells to get their attention, rushing past them back in the direction of Starbug, the two quickly following his lead.

     They very nearly make it when the droid suddenly rounds the corner in front of them, making them suddenly skid to a stop.

     "Get to the ship, sirs, I'll hold him off!" Kryten swings his bazookoid around and begins firing at the advancing enemy.

     Cat wastes no time and dashes around while it's distracted, Lister following on his heels. He's just about past when he feels something hit his foot, and is sent tumbling to the ground, front first. He glances up as he tries to stand back up and realizes the droid had tripped him, and is now leaning down toward him even through the constant barrage of blasts.

     "Get back, sir, I can't keep firing with him so close to you!"

     "I'm trying, man!" He scrambles backward across the floor, sliding on his rear and trying desperately to get himself back up, but keeps falling back down in his panic.

     He feels arms grab roughly under his own and pull him all the way up.

     "Come _on_!" Cat yells, letting go the second he's vertical and running back to where he came from.

     "Kryten come on, let's get out of here!"

     He's bouncing backward but remains long enough to ensure that Kryten gets past the droid and is right behind him before running full speed back to the 'Bug. Throwing themselves through the door and forcing it shut, they take off immediately, only then allowing themselves to catch their breath. Once they're safely out of reach of the ship, Lister puts the 'Bug on autopilot and swings around in his seat.

     "What was all that for?! You could've gotten us killed!"

     "Me?!" Cat turns to face him fully. "You two are the ones who brought us back there! What was _that_ for?!"

     "How'd you even get there?! 'Cause _we_ didn't bring you!"

     "I was just minding my own business having a nap in the back," he explains, thumb pointing back to the sleeping quarters. "When _some_ monkey decided he wanted to go for a joy-ride!"

     "How the _smeg_ was I supposed to know you were in here?"

     "Sirs, please!" Kryten waves his arms as he gets between them. "We mustn't fight. The important thing is that we're all okay!"

     Lister sighs and leans back, slumping down in his chair and rubbing a hand over his face.

     "Yeah, you're right. At least we found what we needed."

     He reaches a hand into his pocket to take out the small piece of hardware, but freezes when he feels it.

     "...Oh no."

     "What is it sir? Is something wrong?"

     Lister takes his hand out, and in his palm rests the broken remnants of the once-pristine object. He groans and clenches his hand shut, laying himself down across the console.

     "It must've broken when I fell. I can't believe this...Rimmer's never getting fixed now..."

     "Hey, _there's_ some good news!" Cat grins toothily and turns back to watch out the front windshield.

     "Oh dear...Oh, there must be _something_ we can do!"

     "It's over, Krytes, we'll never find another," he says gloomily into one of the panels of his dashboard.

     "Man, if you're so upset over Alphabet Soup getting broke, why don't you just fix her yourself?"

     "I'm _trying_ to," Lister sits up again to throw a tired glare over in Cat's direction. "What'd you think me looking for a new part for her was?"

     "Yeah, but why don't you just _make_ a new one? Man, you humans are dumb—got _no_ self-sufficiency."

     Lister's about to ask the Cat where exactly he learned such a big word, let alone how to use it in a sentence, when the meaning of what he said actually hits him.

     "...Make a new one..."

     "Yeah, that's what I said! You hard of hearing or what?"

     He ignores the dig and looks up at the mechanoid hoepfully.

     "Kryten...do you think...?"

     "I don't know, sir. It would require some work, and we might not be able to replicate it's function properly, but it's certainly worth a try!"

     "Worth a try is good enough for me."  


* * *

 

      At first there is nothing but darkness, but gradually, her senses begin to return. Light starts to come in softly from beyond her closed eyelids, and sound fades in, voices and the low hum of a ship becoming apparent, though muffled, as if she's underwater.

     Her head continues to swim softly, but once she feels fully capable, she slowly opens her eyes.

     The immediate surroundings look much like the sounds sound, soft and blurred, as if not completely there just yet. She has trouble focusing on any one thing for a few moments, but is distantly aware of other figures there with her, one of whom is moving closer and then further, as if investigating her.

     "...er?...ou...ight?..."

     Suddenly, things finally begin to clear, and she blinks out of her daze.

     "...Rimmer?...You there?..."

     She's able to recognize the figure immediately in front of her now. It's Lister, looking at her with far more concern than she's ever seen or expected before.

     "Can you hear me? See me?"

     "...Yes."

     Using her voice feels a bit difficult, but at least she's able to speak at all. She sees Lister sigh and his entire body sags with obvious relief. Did something happen? She couldn't quite remember how she got here.

     "...What happened?"

     He turns back from sharing a high-five with Kryten, whom she can now see is standing just behind Lister, and his brows quirk back into concern.

     "Do you not-...What's the last thing you can remember?"

     She's quiet for a few moments, thinking long and hard and trying to grab the closest memory in her files. After a bit of a struggle, it returns with sudden clarity.

     "Oh! I was shut off. That's right." Her face twists up into mild distrust. "Am I fixed then?"

     "Yeah don't worry about it, we fixed everything!" He's smiling brightly and shares this with Kryten.

     "Ma'am, I can say with almost full certainty now that you should be back to normal functioning!"

     " _Almost?_ _Should?_ What does that mean? What did you two do?! How long have I been shut down?!" She steps back, about to begin pacing.

     "Hey, hey, hey!" Lister waves his arms frantically, trying to get her to settle down. "Don't worry, you've only been out a month-"

     "A _month?_ "

     "Well we had to search the entire ship, and that took a while!" She finally stops at this.

     "...You searched the entire ship?"

     "Well yeah, that's where we started. But we didn't find anything, so we had to go back to that base, 'cause I had a hunch, y'see," he continues on.

     "You went back to that base? With that droid?"

     "Yeah, and we did find a replacement part there after all, but that one broke, so we had to figure something else out after that," he keeps going, barely pausing enough for her to interject.

     "...What _did_ you do, then?"

     "You're not gonna believe this, but Cat actually gave me this great idea-"

     "The _Cat?_  Gave you a great idea?"

     "He asked why didn't I just make you a new part, and that got me thinking—why _don't_ I? So I did. Took another couple weeks since all we had is that one book and a pamphlet we picked up from the base, but we got a bunch of new tools from there too, so it all worked out."

     He finishes his tale with a cheeky grin, gesturing to her.

     "So do you feel alright? Everything running good?"

     She has to force herself out of another daze, taking a moment to internally check herself, absent-mindedly patting herself with her hands.

     "I-...yes, I think so."

     He pumps a fist in victory, and she returns to the thought she had just before this.

     "You...You did all this? For _me?_ "

     "Well yeah," he says, as if obvious. "Why wouldn't I? I promised you I'd find a way, right?"

     Something about it still doesn't quite add up for her.

     "...Yes. You did."

     "There you go, then. What's the problem?"

     "It's just..." she looks away from him. "Nobody's ever done something like this for me before."

     She feels a hand on her arm and glances back over, seeing him still smiling to her, softer than before, comforting. She can't quite take it.

     "I...I need a moment."

     She rushes out, picking a random direction and running, leaving her two confused crew-mates behind. Lister thinks of going after her, and has a strangely strong desire to, but thinks better of it.

     "I think perhaps Miss Rimmer is still overwhelmed by her brush with death."

     "...Yeah. Let's give her some space."

     He doesn't say aloud how relieved he is just to have her back at all.

 

     A little later, Rimmer finally stops in the observatory deck, leaning against a wall to catch her breath. She raises a shaky hand to her torso and presses it down, above where her light bee hums softly, but strong as ever. She thinks of how it now houses a special piece, made by hand especially for her, and feels her face heat up, bee humming stronger in place of a heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part turned out to be a bit longer than I first anticipated, but I wanted to bring things to a proper conclusion, lol.
> 
> This might become part of a small series exploring this particular AU, but idk we'll see.

**Author's Note:**

> An idea I had a couple of months back and just got around to trying to write. I've never actually written these characters before despite being a fan for a number of years, so I can only hope that they're written okay. ;\ I may go back and edit some later on.


End file.
